ESPN Boxing

The Vitali Klitschko-Hasim Rahman heavyweight championship fight will take place Nov. 12 at UNLV's Thomas & Mack Center and will be broadcast on HBO PPV, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told ESPN.com Friday.

And after a week of intense negotiations, HBO landed the television rights to the year's biggest heavyweight fight, winning a spirited competition with rival Showtime.

"The fight is going to HBO," Arum said. "HBO and Showtime both made offers and I didn't tell either one what the other was offering. They were both comparable but I was more comfortable with HBO's offer."

"HBO Pay Per View will be televising the biggest heavyweight fight of the year," HBO PPV's Mark Taffet said. "It's good to know boxing fans can mark down the date for this much anticipated battle."

	“	I have an obligation to Klitschko to get the best possible return on this fight. The truth is that HBO has more experience and manpower to handle these big fights. ”
		— Bob Arum, on one reason why the Klitschko-Rahman fight will air on HBO PPV

Showtime had no comment, but part of its proposal included giving Top Rank several lucrative dates on its "Showtime Championship Boxing" series and prospect-oriented show "ShoBox: The New Generation" this year and next.

"The Showtime offer had some bells and whistles, like future dates for Top Rank, but I didn't think that was appropriate," said Arum, who notified the networks on Friday.

"I have an obligation to Klitschko to get the best possible return on this fight. The truth is that HBO has more experience and manpower to handle these big fights."

Because the promotional rights to Klitschko-Rahman were won on a purse bid, Arum is the beneficiary of an obscure WBC rule that gives the winning promoter one option on the winner of the fight in his next title defense. Under the purse bid terms, Klitschko (35-2, 34 KOs) is due 65 percent of the winning bid ($7,800,065) and Rahman (41-5-1, 33 KOs) gets 35 percent ($4,200,350).

However, as a show of good faith to Klitschko, Arum said he tweaked Klitschko's deal to include an upside if the fight is profitable. Arum said maximizing Klitschko's take was one of the reasons he went with HBO. That decision was reached after discussing the offers with Klitschko's German advisers in Budapest Wednesday.

Another reason the fight went to HBO is because Arum said he and HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg, who have had a frosty recent relationship because of the way Arum thinks he and his fighters have been treated by the network, have smoothed things over.

"Ross promised me that he won't treat me like a stepchild anymore," Arum said. "We'll get our fair share of dates. I didn't get anything in writing but if you can't rely on Ross Greenburg's word, you can't rely on anyone's."

The fight, dubbed "Seek and Destroy," officially will be announced Sept. 19 in Los Angeles followed by media tour stops in Las Vegas (Sept. 20), Atlantic City (Sept. 24) and New York (Sept. 26).

Top Rank, which doesn't promote Klitschko or Rahman, shocked the boxing industry last week when it submitted a winning purse bid of $12.001 million for the mandatory fight. The Top Rank bid beat an $11 million offer from Rahman promoter Don King and a $10.7 million bid by K2 Promotions, Klitschko's company.

Arum cut a site deal with Harrah's and the new Wynn Las Vegas resort to sponsor the fight, but it will be at the Thomas & Mack Center because neither casino has its own arena.

Hotel magnate Steve Wynn, making a strong move to get back into boxing, also brokered a similar deal with Top Rank to sponsor the Oct. 8 Diego Corrales-Jose Luis Castillo lightweight championship rematch.

The merger this year of rival casinos MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay left little competition for fights in Las Vegas. But Wynn's reemergence has given the fight game another serious player. MGM had shown interest in Klitschko-Rahman but Wynn made Arum a more attractive offer.

Arum said welterweight titlist Antonio Margarito will defend his belt on the undercard, probably against brawler Manny Gomez.

Also expected to see action on the televised portion of the card include junior bantamweight titlist Martin Castillo, widely regarded as the best of the 115-pounders, and junior welterweight prospect Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

Although Arum's participation in the purse bid was a surprise, he said Top Rank bid because "we just felt it was an underpriced asset. We felt that it was the heavyweight championship of the world and that Klitschko vs. Rahman was an intriguing fight. It'll be a good betting fight. I'm just bound and determined to make this thing a huge success. I want to just ring up numbers like I think I can. I want this to be the biggest pay-per-view of the year."

That would mean beating the roughly 500,000 buys that Winky Wright's victory against Felix Trinidad generated in May.

With Klitschko-Rahman landing on Nov. 12, it means Arum will have to soothe junior welterweight titlist Floyd Mayweather, his star fighter who has been bumped off that date.

Mayweather hoped to fight on pay-per-view Nov. 12 in the wake of his dominant June title win against Arturo Gatti. However, Mayweather doesn't have a pay-per-view level opponent for the date after unsuccessful talks with Winky Wright and Zab Judah.

Arum said that Mayweather probably would fight on Nov. 19 on HBO instead. Arum said Mayweather could fight a welterweight bout against Sharmba Mitchell or perhaps defend his 140-pound belt against Joel Casamayor or "Kid Diamond" Almazbek Raiymkulov, top lightweights who fought to a draw in June.

Judah wants Mayweather: Undisputed welterweight champion Zab Judah (34-2, 25 KOs) said he welcomes a fight with Mayweather (34-0, 23 KOs), a match that would pit two of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world.

	“	I don't understand why Floyd spent all this time trying to make a fight with Winky (Wright). I am the undisputed welterweight world champion -- just seven pounds heavier than Floyd -- and he wants to move to 154 and face a man with no titles? I don't get it. ”
		— Zab Judah on Floyd Mayweather

There have been preliminary discussions about the match between Judah promoter King and Mayweather promoter Arum. They didn't go very far.

"I don't understand why Floyd spent all this time trying to make a fight with Winky (Wright)," Judah said. "I am the undisputed welterweight world champion -- just seven pounds heavier than Floyd -- and he wants to move to 154 and face a man with no titles? I don't get it.

"Floyd says he's never ducked anyone and never will. If he will not fight me, he's going to have some explaining to do. Fighters know things that other people don't. By looking over me, he's telling me he fears me."

Arum said that he and King can work out a deal for the fight and he thought it would happen in the first half of next year. Arum said one of the reasons it won't happen in November is because Judah's father and trainer, Yoel Judah, didn't want his son to fight Mayweather this year.

Shaw signs Pacquiao: Promoter Gary Shaw has signed star junior lightweight Manny Pacquiao to a promotional agreement.

"As a promoter, you always hope to sign a blue chip athlete who will win a world title," Shaw said in a statement.

"I have signed a 'platinum chip' world class champion whose persona transcends sports and approaches folklore in the Philippines. I feel privileged that Manny has chosen me as his promoter," Shaw said.

Pacquiao (39-3-2, 31 KOs), a former two-time champion at flyweight and junior featherweight, faces Hector Velazquez (42-10-2, 31 KOs) on Sept. 10 in Los Angeles on an HBO doubleheader that will also feature Erik Morales (48-2, 34 KOs) against Zahir Raheem (26-1, 16 KOs). If Pacquiao and Morales both win, they are slated to fight a rematch of their classic March battle early next year. Morales won the first meeting on a decision.

Pacquiao recently gained a settlement from former promoter Murad Muhammad, whom he had sued for skimming from his purses. Muhammad settled the case during jury deliberations.

Shaw's stable of fighters is not very big but it is impressive. He also promotes lightweight champ Diego Corrales, middleweight star Winky Wright and super middleweight titlist Jeff Lacy.

Guzman moves up: Former junior featherweight titlist Joan Guzman (23-0, 17 KOs) of the Dominican Republic, one of the most dynamic punchers in the lower weights, will face Terdsak Jandaeng (18-0, 13 KOs) of Thailand on Friday night in White Plains, N.Y., in a featherweight title eliminator. The winner will become the mandatory challenger for belt holder Scott Harrison.

Guzman, who has had trouble making the 122-pound junior featherweight limit, relinquished his title to move up to 126 pounds for this fight. Also on the card is rising welterweight contender Carlos Quintana (20-0, 16 KOs). The southpaw will face Dillon Carew (17-13-3, 11 KOs).

"Too Sharp" injured: Mark "Too Sharp" Johnson's return is on hold after the former flyweight and two-time junior bantamweight champ suffered a training injury. Johnson tore his left triceps while preparing for a Sept. 1 bantamweight fight against Jhonny Gonzalez (29-4, 25 KOs). Johnson, who will be out for at least four weeks, hasn't fought since September 2004, when he lost his 115-pound title via eighth-round knockout to Ivan Hernandez. William Gonzalez (20-1, 15 KOs) of Nicaragua will replace Johnson.

Tapia time: Johnny Tapia (55-4-2, 28 KOs), the colorful former multi-division champ, returns to action Sept. 16 (Telefutura) in Chicago. Tapia settled for the fight against an opponent to be named after seeing two significant fights fail to materialize. Tapia was supposed to challenge junior featherweight titlist Israel Vazquez in July but the fight was called because of numerous promotional issues. Then Tapia was one of the finalists to replace injured featherweight titlist Injin Chi against Rocky Juarez on last Saturday's HBO card, but Humberto Soto got the fight instead.

Also on the card will be hot bantamweight prospect Raul Martinez (9-0, 6 KOs) of San Antonio, who gained valuable exposure in April when he opened the first ESPN pay-per-view card.

Quick hits: Lightweight Ebo Elder (22-1, 14 KOs), who last week signed a promotional contract with Las Vegas-based Guilty Boxing, is scheduled to face former titlist Lakva Sim (20-4-1, 17 KOs) of Mongolia in an elimination fight Sept. 16 in Duluth, Ga. The winner will become the mandatory challenger for titlist Juan Diaz. Elder was scheduled to face Diaz in April on the undercard of the Main Events/ESPN debut pay-per-view card, but Diaz suffered a cut in sparring the week before the fight and it was called off. … Mexican icon Julio Cesar Chavez (108-5-2, 87 KOs), who is continuing his farewell tour with a fight on Sept. 17 in Phoenix, has a new opponent. The former three-division champ will face Craig Weber (21-1-2, 11 KOs) in the 10-round welterweight bout. Weber got the fight when original opponent Lou Bizzarro failed to return a signed contract to Top Rank. … Junior welterweight prospect Mike Arnaoutis (13-0-2), who made many fans with a series of exciting fights on "ShoBox," is set to return from a hand injury. Arnaoutis, who hasn't fought since February, faces Marteze Logan on Sept. 2 (ESPN Deportes) in Las Vegas.

Quotable: "Hey, I've got respect for Barrera in and out of the ring, but leading into the fight he will be my worst enemy. It won't be a hate, but anyone that tries to take anything from me becomes my enemy." -- Robbie Peden on Marco Antonio Barrera, responding to questions about their junior lightweight unification fight on Sept. 17 (HBO PPV) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.